No place quite like their Louisville home: Couple's unique details hone in on elements of Tolkien, Rowling books

Barbara and Don McKee collaborated on the design of the round, stained-glass "hobbit" door that serves as the back entrance to their LaFarge Ave. home in Louisville. (Doug Pike / Colorado Hometown Weekly)

This unassuming bookcase in Don and Barbara McKee's downtown Louisville home doubles as two doors — one to the bathroom and the other to a staircase leading to the basement. (Doug Pike / Colorado Hometown Weekly)

On the wall above Louisville residents Don and Barbara McKee's back door is painted a motto that sums up the couple's philosophy when it comes to their home: "Never make anything simple and efficient if a way can be found to make it complex and wonderful."

Suffice to say the McKees have found a way — starting with the back door.

Like something straight out of a J.R.R. Tolkien novel, the door is perfectly round, with an intricate floral pattern framed in wood, inset with stained glass and of course, an ornate brass door knob.

Oddly enough, the centerpiece of the home is the exit.

"We're longtime 'Lord of the Rings' fans," said Don, who recalls first reading the Tolkien series in his youth. "The round door is mentioned in the second sentence of the whole saga."

The door is opened by turning an ornate brass door knob, sculpted by Don, in its center. The round door features three dead bolts — a feat of engineering themselves, considering there are no straight lines in the door's wooden frame through which to route the mechanisms.

The door took the McKees around 15 months to complete, and that doesn't include design time.

"If I didn't enjoy doing this, it wouldn't get done," said Don, a retired mechanical engineer. "It wouldn't even get thought of."

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The couple started building a 700-square-foot addition onto their 1897 home nine years ago, and much of that time has been spent turning fantasy into reality.

The McKees included a few more commonplace additions such as French doors and a clawfoot bathtub.

They also added a hidden mount for a flat screen television, which at the push of a button emerges from behind a painting above the fireplace. The couple covered their refrigerator in hand-hammered copper plating, domed their hallway ceiling and covered porch and carved out their own design into the cabinets beneath their sink. Don even designed a kitchen island via which a drawer of silverware can be accessed from either side — always with the handles facing out.

Turning the page from Tolkien to J.K. Rowling, the home also features a set of custom hallway book cases that double as a pair of hidden doors — one leading to the main bathroom and the other exposing a staircase that descends to the basement and Don's workshop.

Just about everything, down to the door knob on their round, stained-glass back door, is custom made in Barbara and Don McKee's Louisville home. (Doug Pike / Colorado Hometown Weekly)

Don and Barbara have found sport in directing unsuspecting guests to the bathroom by simply telling them, "The bathroom door is in the hallway."

The bookshelves, which weigh approximately 400 pounds each, are hinged with the front wheel bearings from a car.

The hidden doors open by cocking the hammer on an antique pistol discreetly mounted in a display case on the bookshelf.

In front of the bookshelves is a 4-foot round, wooden medallion inset into the floor. Barbara designed the piece, hiding the images of eight animals within its pattern.

"We probably should have grandkids, but we don't have any kids," Don said.

Barbara and Don McKee collaborated on the design of the round, stained-glass "hobbit" door that serves as the back entrance to their LaFarge Avenue home in Louisville. (Doug Pike / Colorado Hometown Weekly)

The home has become so much of an attraction that the couple have discovered passersby admiring the unique features of the home and invited them in for an impromptu tour.

"In any other place, letting people — strangers — into your home would be iffy, but this is Louisville," Barbara said. "It's so safe."

The home was originally built by E.J. Di Francia, the first owner of the former Old Louisville Inn building. The McKees started on their elaborate addition by knocking out the original kitchen and building out to the west.

Don worked as a sculptor for 25 years. He has put his stamp on such Colorado landmarks as the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver. He constructed the archway over the hotel's main entrance.

Don, who for years sculpted buckles and broaches for use with kilts, was the first American ever commissioned to do a piece of royal regalia when he produced a collar of office for Lord Lyon, King of Arms in Scotland.

Barbara did stained glass work professionally for 35 years and her craft is featured throughout the home.

Even the outside of the home is a custom work of art. The exterior walls are done in a dizzying pattern of hand-cut shingles.

"You have to really like doing little nitpicky things to get some of this done," Barbara said. "I guess it's fortunate that we do. We really do love it."

The McKees are far from finished.

The kitchen island still needs to be completed and a kitchen cupboard that also doubles as a hidden door is already in the design phase. The work seems endless, but they wouldn't have it any other way, Don said.

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